Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: "Who You Really Are"Review

I always love seeing Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), and her second SHIELD appearance certainly delivered some fun moments, with Alexander, per usual, nailing the character’s unwavering strength and confidence – which shined through even amongst her amnesia. And yes, it was hard not laugh as Sif learned, for instance, she knew Odin, and exclaimed, “Shut up!”

Still, I don’t think “Who You Really Are” served her as well as the last time we saw her. The amnesia storyline ultimately felt a bit extraneous and without enough payoff to warrant needing it in the first place.

Having the main villain be a Kree (Eddie McClintock) was cool, and his ultimate status as less of a villain and more of a guy there to clean up a mess – even though his certainty that killing Skye would be the right move put him at odds with SHIELD – was used well, as he, Sif and SHIELD clashed over how to handle Skye.

I really liked that Skye’s abilities were revealed to everyone so quickly, once more reflecting the increased pace on SHIELD in Season 2, as it seemed as though that might stay a secret for quite awhile. On the flip side, there was still more hammering home of characters making Skye feel like she was something awful and scary, here via our Kree pal who made sure to say the Inhumans were “abominations” twice in the same scene.

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Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Who You Really Are" Photos

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Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Who You Really Are" Photos

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Who You Really Are" Photos

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On the Inhuman front, it continues to be impressive how much info we’re getting about them, including their Kree origins, the way the Diviners work and what they were meant for. Obviously, the Inhumans movie will end up repeating a lot of this information, but likely in a more streamlined fashion, as SHIELD has time to delve more into these aspects. The idea that SHIELD is really ingrained in the MCU is getting an appreciated push this season for sure by doing so much legwork for a movie that is years away.

The Mack and Bobbi storyline (I joked on Twitter the other day that anyone who ships the two should refer to them as “Mackingbird” – and I stand by that horribleness) was actually perhaps the best part of this episode. We learned they most certainly were not Hydra, even as their secrecy and intensity, and belief that whatever they’re doing will likely turn everyone against them, raised lots of intriguing questions.

Mack’s really starting to come into his own, with his apparently earnest reluctance to go into the field (“Violence isn’t really my thing”) juxtaposed with the startling sight of him choking Hunter out at the end, when Hunter asked too many questions. Even as that brought about some great, “what happens now?!” questions, it also was a good move for Hunter as a character, showing how observant he was – very much noticing Mack and Bobbi’s suspicious behavior and also knowing it was some sort of spy-based partnership, and not, thankfully, any silly, “Do you two have something going on behind my back?!” type of misunderstanding.